Flows are just as important to good interfaces as individual screens are. Customers don’t land on screens from out of nowhere. Specific sequences of actions lead customers through your app as they try to accomplish their tasks.
But as important as they are, flows are hard to communicate during the design process. Drawing out every state of a flow is too time-consuming. And drawings become instantly outdated as screens change. On the other extreme, flows written down into stories or paragraphs are hard to reference and they don’t easily decompose into checklists for design and review.
Working on 37signals Accounts has recently raised this issue of communicating flows for me. We have whole sets of flows that need to be properly designed, implemented, tested and retested. So I’ve scratched the itch with a simple shorthand.
Flows are made out of individual interactions. A screen offers some possibilities and the user chooses one. Then something happens, and the screen changes. It’s an ongoing conversation. Each moment in a flow is like a coin with two sides. The screen is showing something on one side, and the user is reacting on the other side. My flow diagrams illustrate this two-sided nature with a bar. Above the bar is what the user sees. Below the bar is what they do. An arrow connects the user’s action to a new screen with yet another action.
There’s nothing more dangerous than an average manager with free time on his hands. When your work is solely coordinating and assigning other people’s tasks, topping off a slow day usually means making up more (needless) stuff for others to do.
This is in part the tyranny of the 8-hour work day paradigm. When the work is progressing as planned and the core issues have been addressed, the right move for the manager is often to step back. But if all you know how do is “manage”, there’s no fallback. Nothing else to fill your time with.
What you’re left with is net-negative management. That the presence of a manager actually detracts more value than not having one at all would do.
The alternative for many smaller teams or shops is the combined idea of managers of one and working managers. That management can be less than a full-time role, it can be a responsibility that people who also does the work can take upon them when needed.
Highrise New in Highrise: Quickly file a note or email under a case or deal
We launched a new Highrise feature that makes it a lot faster and easier to file a note or email under a case or deal. This new feature will save you clicks and time — especially when filing a lot of notes/emails one after another.
Basecamp Create a timeline of a Basecamp project with BEEDOCS Timeline 3D
“You can quickly create timeline charts of the information in your Basecamp projects. I think this will be really useful to help you present executive summaries of your project status to either team members or to your customers.”
Seattle mayoral candidate uses Basecamp for campaign
“Mcginn, who uses web 2.0 Company 37Signals’ project management web application Basecamp for his campaign as well as social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter…”
The Reactable. Swell, futuristic synthesizer. Starts getting cool at about 1:20 in. Details: “The instrument is based on a translucent and luminous round table, and by putting these pucks on the Reactable surface, by turning them and connecting them to each other, performers can combine different elements like synthesizers, effects, sample loops or control elements in order to create a unique and flexible composition.” [thx JG]
The title of vice president must be the most promiscuous of all in corporate America. Everyone seems to be a vice president these days. Some companies having hundreds of them. Are all of these people truly capable of standing in for the president or CEO of the company should it come to that? Are they really just one step below that person?
Of course they’re not. Vice president is mostly an “all title, no lands” concept that serves as a cheap way to make someone feel important without the authority to actually be important. It’s classic over-promise, under-deliver. “You’re oh-so-important, but please fill out this expense authorization report for your laptop”.
Titles are mostly bullshit at the best of times, but “vice president” seems to be bullshit all the time.
Has the time come to kill the “Remember me” check box and just assume that people using shared computers will simply logout?
A friend of mine sent me a text message this past weekend: “Did you know that they make spray paint specifically for graffiti?” He is a police officer (and former teenage graffiti writer). I thought he was joking and replied, “That’s capitalism for you. I wish I had thought of that idea.”
Today I saw that he was actually serious. There is a company from Barcelona Spain called MTN (Montana) that makes specific markers and spray paint for graffiti. There’s even an online store called Art Primo where you can get spray caps. FYI, you need to throw away the stock caps and get specific caps for smooth or fat spray lines.
Graffiti is illegal in most (if not all) cities, so this is a bit surprising to me. In many ways it actually takes the fun out of graffiti. Part of the fun is using something that was designed for a pedestrian purpose (like painting a bike or chair) and using it to paint a mural. I guess I wouldn’t be surprised to see a graffiti store at your local mall in a few years right next to Hot Topic.
Can you think of any other niche businesses that surprise you?
“Oh, you’re the most important person? You only need to read this. Everyone else: Go ahead and waste your time with the full thing!”
Why should only executives be spared the task of reading fluff? If the important, power-wielding, DECIDER only needs to read a few paragraphs to get what’s going on, that should be enough for everyone else too.
Sure, the real context of these summaries is usually “If you don’t have full bandwidth right now, read this.” But if that’s the real meaning, why not have a title which accurately reflects that?
As long as we’re talking about unconventional acceptance speeches, here’s a great one: Jerry Seinfeld won the first ever American Comedian award and used his speech to basically roast the whole idea of award shows. “Your whole career as a comedian is about making fun of pretentious, high-minded, self-congratulatory, BS events like this one…I feel very honored, but it’s just that awards are stupid.”
